Human Library: Meet your prejudice *

Visit the Human Library in Tilburg on Wednesday April 11, 2018. Instead of a book, you can borrow a 'person' and hear their life story. There will be many different 'books' whom you can talk to, such as refugees, an orphan, a transsexual, people with a handicap or people who have a peculiar lifestyle. The Human Library aims to take away prejudices and stimulate social cohesion. (language: Dutch & English)

Books

Human Library is an originally Danish concept that is conquering the world. In a Human Library, the 'books' are people who have all experienced or are experiencing a particular prejudice in their lives. They are willing to share their life story and, for one afternoon, they are a book that can be read. The book title describes the stereotype they represent.

Life story

The visitors, i.e., the readers, choose a book with a story on which they have certain presuppositions or questions. They subsequently join the book at the table and the ‘reading’ can begin. The book tells his or her story. The readers can ask the book all the questions they want and, conversely, the books can ask their readers all sorts of questions. In this way, the readers hopefully allow their prejudices to be challenged.

One reader said:

'What touched me most was the personal character of the dialog and the possibility that two people who have only just met for the first time can directly share very personal stories. It was a very special experience for me, a wonderful book that I will not forget in a hurry.'

Program

The edition of Human Library on April 11 takes place in the Dante Building at Tilburg University campus. Admission is free. It takes about twenty minutes to 'read a book'.

Lectures

During Human Library scientists Mark Brandt and Paul Mutsaers will share their research findings about prejudices in a short lecture.

About prejudices en how to reduce them (English) – Mark Brandt

Researcher Mark Brandt will give a short talk about his work on seeing someone as dissimilar and prejudice. In our work, we find that seeing someone as dissimilar leads to prejudice and that this is true for many people. Even people's good intentions and openness does not seem to help. This means that we can't just rely on our good intentions if we want to reduce prejudice. That may all sound depressing, but there is hope. Research also finds that getting to know people with different views and perspectives and working with those people can break down these walls and increase tolerance.